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If you are a parent, you should be aware by now that all local schools begin classes on Monday, August 25th. For you and others without school age children, I want to forward a gentle reminder that with school comes children walking the streets. They may be walking to a bus stop, or to the school they attend.

As a bus driver I have many more hours of driving time with students gathered or walking than most do. I’ve seen inattention and sometimes, a total disregard for safety of children, from both drivers and the children, themselves.

I’ve had my “reds” run. Most times from oncoming traffic. Occasionally, from behind me. I can usually tell the drivers who simply weren’t paying attention. Most who approach from my front only see me at the last moment. They may end up finally stopping near the rear of my bus. As those drivers pass I can see the surprise on their faces when it finally registers that the vehicle they are about to pass is a school bus lit up like a Christmas tree.

At least they stop and I actually cut them some slack. We all make mistakes and their stopping, even though their passing the front of my bus is a ticketing offense, tells me they hadn’t intentionally broken the law and they’ll likely pay better attention in the future.

Those that pass from behind I have no sympathy for. Once, while dropping off my last student of the day, at his home in south side Easton last year, a C-Town delivery van went around me from behind. I watched him continue into the C-Town parking lot next to the entrance doors and go inside.

After discharging my student I drove the 200 yards to C-Town and had a discussion with both his manager and him. It was one of the few times I didn’t file a report with the police. I figured a guy without a job would have a difficult time paying a massive fine and he wouldn’t be passing a school bus again. His punishment wasn’t my idea, but he was apparently a problem driver with other offenses already working against him.

Watch out for kids – especially middle school and high school students.

Some kids don’t look both ways when crossing the street, don’t cross in crosswalks, or obey traffic signals that allow them to cross safely. As we all believed when we were young, they think themselves immortal and assume a vehicle sees them and will stop.

That doesn’t include those who walk while texting or finding the next song to play, complete with earplugs that make them oblivious to everything else around them. I’ve seen kids walk and stumble off a curb into the street, because they never bothered to look up from the electronic device they are engaged in.

14th and Butler Streets in Easton comes to mind when I think of “stupid” H.S. students. Every morning last year I passed that intersection with no less than a half dozen kids literally in the street, some with backs to oncoming traffic, socializing. There is a perfectly good sidewalk available and plenty of room for that large crowd of students to be off the street, but they preferred to make it inconvenient for motorists who would have to go into the opposing lane to avoid hitting any of them.

Sadly, I had actually seen an Easton police car go around them on more than one occasion, rather than stopping and telling them to get off the street. Of course, when one of those kids is eventually hit (I’m guessing it will be a winter month, when it is dark and road conditions are hazardous) it will be the driver who is cited and vilified, whether deserved or not.

School Transportation News follows national wire reports that mention deaths involving school bus stops. They attribute 16 student deaths around the school bus or bus stop during the 2011-2012 school year. I was unable to locate the defined statistics on more recent years.

Over the past 43 years, 65 percent of the fatalities, or 786 incidents, occurred during the trip home compared to 32 percent, or 385 incidents, on the trip to school. Another 3 percent, or 41 incidents, occurred during an activity or “other” trip. The school bus was involved 57 percent of the time and illegally passing motorists 39 percent of the time. Four percent consists of an “other” vehicle.

Before school opens I will do another piece on the law relating to obeying school bus signals, fines, and penalties. I will also give some obvious safety reminders you can pass to your kids to keep them from getting killed or injured by a passing motorist, or the school bus, itself.